Tana Umanga appointed Māori All Blacks assistant coach

Māori All Blacks Head Coach Colin Cooper has announced the coaching and management team for the Maori All Blacks' 2016 end of year northern tour.

Former All Blacks captain and Blues Head Coach Tana Umaga has been appointed Assistant Coach. Former All Blacks prop and Waikato Forwards Coach Carl Hoeft has been appointed Assistant Forwards Coach.

Cooper says, “I’m delighted to have Tana and Carl join us. Their mix of specific coaching skills and insight as former players adds huge value to the work we are doing around this team.

Tana brings a certain mana to our team – he understands the professional rugby environment well and brings a strong High-Performance approach to his work. There’s no doubting the knowledge that Carl brings to the forward pack so it’s great to have him on board as well.

The Māori All Blacks is a special team and it's important that we can access great high-performance coaching skills."